Lansing firefighter paramedic Craig Wade dangled from a single rope 30 feet above an underground tunnel on Tuesday, and he said it’s not the first time his job has put him in a precarious position.
“I’ve probably done this at least 12 times,” he said, referring to the confined space rescue training that began on Tuesday at the pump house on the intersection between Farm Lane and Service Road on campus.
The training, which takes place annually among all area fire departments, is necessary in ensuring firefighters are up to speed on equipment use, procedure and know how to navigate potential rescue sites, said East Lansing Fire Department Capt. Greg Baker.
During the training days, firefighters from East Lansing, Lansing, Meridian and other local departments simulate the rescue of two mannequins trapped in a tunnel around two-and-a-half stories below the surface, Baker said.
Although the training is held every year and is mandatory for all firefighters, Wade said he has yet to encounter a situation where the training was put to use.
Tuesday’s exercise, while informative for Wade, was unnerving as well.
“When you first go down it’s scary because you’re hanging there and its probably a good 20 to 30 feet off the ground, and you’re being suspended by a rope,” Wade said . “They lower you down slowly, and when we first got in there we had to make a swing to get to where we actually need to be.”
MSU’s Occupational Health and Safety Officer Andy Smith said MSU is as cooperative as it can be when it comes to providing challenging training sites on campus because MSU relies on the local fire departments in emergencies.
“They’re used as our rescue team under our procedures and emergency plans,” Smith said. “We’re required by ... law to help them see the spaces we work in and to see challenges to the spaces. It also gives us peace of mind in knowing when we call, they have capability to come in and take care of us.”
East Lansing Fire Department firefighter paramedic Tim Ledesma said the training allows the crew to see the spaces they potentially could be rescuing people from in the future, helping the departments to be prepared.
“It gives us a good chance to train together,” he said. “We learn how each other operates and then we can see what equipment works, what techniques work well, and which ones don’t work so well.”
The confined space training is scheduled to continue through Thursday of this week.
